Federal report condemns animal cognition researcher for misconduct

Ex-Harvard professor did not do all the research he claimed to have done.

On Wednesday, the US Office of Research Integrity released a report finding ex-Harvard professor Marc Hauser guilty of research misconduct. A scandal broke last year when Hauser, a major figure in the field of animal cognition research, was accused of questionable research practices and reprimanded by Harvard. The new report investigates several of Hauser’s studies on primate cognition that were funded by the National Institutes of Health over the last several years.

In experiments involving animal behavior, trials are often videotaped so that subtle behaviors and responses to stimuli can be analyzed more carefully. According to the report, many of the instances of misconduct had to do with the “coding,” or interpretation, of these videotapes. In two cases, Hauser miscoded the videotaped trials, claiming that the subjects responded in ways consistent with the experiments’ hypotheses; when unbiased observers watched the tapes, they found no evidence that the subjects behaved in this way. In another instance, Hauser claimed that three observers independently coded the trials, while in reality, only Hauser did so (then proceeded to fabricate a measure of “inter-observer reliability”).

In one of the most blatant instances of misconduct, it appears that Hauser did not actually conduct the research he claimed to have done, and instead, he completely fabricated data for an entire control group. The report found that in two other cases, Hauser manipulated the results obtained in the study in order to reach statistical significance.

As a result of the report’s findings, any research that Hauser participates in during the next three years must be supervised by the Office of Research Integrity, and he cannot serve in any advisory role for the Public Health Service during this time.

Hauser released a statement saying that he has “fundamental differences with some of the findings,” but also acknowledges that he has “made mistakes.” He writes, “I let important details get away from my control, and as head of the lab, I take responsibility for all errors made within the lab, whether or not I was directly involved."

Kate Shaw Yoshida
Kate is a science writer for Ars Technica. She recently earned a dual Ph.D. in Zoology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior from Michigan State University, studying the social behavior of wild spotted hyenas. Emailkate.shaw@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KateYoshida

I'm in no way condoning what he did, pardon me for forgetting to use my sarcasm font.

Didn't say you did, but technicalities are the death of a thousand cuts for a society and it will come back to haunt us.

Ohhh okay, I misunderstood I thought you were directing your comment at me. I agree with you about technicalities, but I have a perverse love of them as well. I actually enjoy watching commercials now, to see if I can apply the "small print" to them to see what they are actually saying. Like the Western Sky Commercials, If you read the small print, and do some math, you discover that the 10,000 dollar "loan" costs you a total of 62,500 or so dollars to repay. (I guess the Native Americans found a way to get back at the European invaders one idiot at a time.)

Like the Western Sky Commercials, If you read the small print, and do some math, you discover that the 10,000 dollar "loan" costs you a total of 62,500 or so dollars to repay. (I guess the Native Americans found a way to get back at the European invaders one idiot at a time.)

However horrible the loan rates are, they are better than other unsecured, unverified short term loans. Payday loans at least verify income, and they charge nearly 1000% interest in some cases. It's still legal loan sharking, but they aren't alone, and you can get their interest rates right off their website.

Like the Western Sky Commercials, If you read the small print, and do some math, you discover that the 10,000 dollar "loan" costs you a total of 62,500 or so dollars to repay. (I guess the Native Americans found a way to get back at the European invaders one idiot at a time.)

I'll be hitting Pause on the DVR the next time that commercial pops up. Honestly, I'm usually just distracted by the gorgeous woman speaking. But I guess that's why she's there.

Like the Western Sky Commercials, If you read the small print, and do some math, you discover that the 10,000 dollar "loan" costs you a total of 62,500 or so dollars to repay. (I guess the Native Americans found a way to get back at the European invaders one idiot at a time.)

I'll be hitting Pause on the DVR the next time that commercial pops up. Honestly, I'm usually just distracted by the gorgeous woman speaking. But I guess that's why she's there.

[off topic] Yeah, it's pretty bad....

@BkMak: Funny, I did the same thing when I saw that commercial. I actually paused the DVR like MrMc suggested, read the terms, and sat down with my grade school son to work out the math as part math lesson and part reality check. Was a really cool exercise given that he came to his own conclusion that this was indeed highway robbery to the more mathematically challenged (he's really interested in math and I'm trying to encourage it any way possible by bringing in real world examples).

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

So that's where they went... I thought all our used tape camcorders had been sold to Africa, but apparently there's a market of poor scientists who use them to record trials, instead of using digital camcorders or hosting the videos on SciTube...

Academics are like lawyers in that they fiercely protect each other, even when "bad" behavior occurs. Did Hauser kill anyone? No. Okay, we'll put him on ice for a couple of years then enthusiastically bring him back into the fold. That's just how academia works, unfortunately. Frankly, I'm surprised he wasn't simply "promoted" out of the controversy. I suspect that if Federal grant money weren't involved, that's exactly what would have happened.

By the way, as taxpayers, aren't some of you at least a LITTLE upset that he's not responsible for repaying at least some of the funds that he essentially flushed down the toilet?

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

Gees... where did you go to school? Where I went we had integrity (and an anonymous reporting system).

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

Gees... where did you go to school? Where I went we had integrity (and an anonymous reporting system).

Well, if I read his posting history right, he's a global warming "skeptik". So he thinks he has cause, even if he's perhaps (by his lights) exaggerating a little.

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

Gees... where did you go to school? Where I went we had integrity (and an anonymous reporting system).

Well, if I read his posting history right, he's a global warming "skeptik". So he thinks he has cause, even if he's perhaps (by his lights) exaggerating a little.

A global warming skeptic? Where do you see that in my post history hah. The Earth heats and cools based on the carbon cycle, we are obviously in a heating phase. I would tell you folks my school but I'd rather not be outed as a whistle-blower.

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

Gees... where did you go to school? Where I went we had integrity (and an anonymous reporting system).

Really? Where in the US is a school that is still about academia rather than business? I mean the actual function of the school. They are businesses, not places of learning.

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

Gees... where did you go to school? Where I went we had integrity (and an anonymous reporting system).

Well, if I read his posting history right, he's a global warming "skeptik". So he thinks he has cause, even if he's perhaps (by his lights) exaggerating a little.

A global warming skeptic? Where do you see that in my post history hah. The Earth heats and cools based on the carbon cycle, we are obviously in a heating phase. I would tell you folks my school but I'd rather not be outed as a whistle-blower.

I have NEVER met a professor with a grant or federal backing that wasn't misconducting their research in desperation to remain relevant and keep making easy money. Good luck reporting these tenure professors, you will be expelled from your university.

Gees... where did you go to school? Where I went we had integrity (and an anonymous reporting system).

Well, if I read his posting history right, he's a global warming "skeptik". So he thinks he has cause, even if he's perhaps (by his lights) exaggerating a little.

A global warming skeptic? Where do you see that in my post history hah. The Earth heats and cools based on the carbon cycle, we are obviously in a heating phase. I would tell you folks my school but I'd rather not be outed as a whistle-blower.

Funny, I did the same thing when I saw that commercial. I actually paused the DVR like MrMc suggested, read the terms, and sat down with my grade school son to work out the math as part math lesson and part reality check. Was a really cool exercise given that he came to his own conclusion that this was indeed highway robbery to the more mathematically challenged (he's really interested in math and I'm trying to encourage it any way possible by bringing in real world examples).

As a little bit of advice, when he gets older, and provided he is still interested in maths, try to get him to take some classes at a university and network with his instructors. Depending upon the size of the university, some of the applied maths or statistics professors will definitely be interested in an unpaid research assistant, even one in middle or high school, that can help out with making or running programs to analyze data, gathering data, reading manuscripts, doing literature reviews, etc. Moreover, that experience, beyond allowing him to get a glimpse into how the field progresses, will be of immense use when it comes time to apply as a degree-seeking candidate.

Funny, I did the same thing when I saw that commercial. I actually paused the DVR like MrMc suggested, read the terms, and sat down with my grade school son to work out the math as part math lesson and part reality check. Was a really cool exercise given that he came to his own conclusion that this was indeed highway robbery to the more mathematically challenged (he's really interested in math and I'm trying to encourage it any way possible by bringing in real world examples).

As a little bit of advice, when he gets older, and provided he is still interested in maths, try to get him to take some classes at a university and network with his instructors. Depending upon the size of the university, some of the applied maths or statistics professors will definitely be interested in an unpaid research assistant, even one in middle or high school, that can help out with making or running programs to analyze data, gathering data, reading manuscripts, doing literature reviews, etc. Moreover, that experience, beyond allowing him to get a glimpse into how the field progresses, will be of immense use when it comes time to apply as a degree-seeking candidate.